Jharkhand lynching victim's family denies reports that father was also lynched

Ranchi, June 27: The family of Tabrez Ansari, who was lynched by a mob in Jharkhand, denied reports that claimed that his father, Maskoor Ansari, was also killed in a similar way 15 years ago. Tabrez was beaten to death by the locals in Saraikela, Jharkhand. He was reportedly beaten up mercilessly for over 18 hours over the suspicion of theiving a motocycle before being handed over to the police. He succumbed to his injuries at a local hospital on June 22.

A report earlier claimed that Maskoor,Tabrez's father, was also killed by a mob. The report quotes Congress' district unit general secretary Mohammed Mosahid Khan as saying that 'he had gone to Jamshedpur to bring Maskoor's body back to his villages. The report further says two elderly persons 'corroborated what Khan said'.

When asked about this, Tabrez's uncle Marsood Alam, said, "He was murdered over a dispute with his friends, we found his body a week later, I refute such reports."

Another reports states that Maskoor had gone to a forest area with his friends in 2005, and then, there was no news of him for two days. Two days after he disappeared, his body was found in the forest. Initially, a case was reportedly against four friends of Maskoor, but six months after the incident, all of them were also found dead in the same forest.

Several videos of the Jharkhand mob lynching went viral where a man could be seen hitting Tabrez Ansari with a wooden stick as the latter begged him to let him go. Tabrez was suspected of theft.

Tabrez, was first admitted at a local hospital for a preliminary check-up and later he was locked up in Seraikela jail in Jharkhand. After his condition worsened, Tabrez was taken to Sadar hospital where the doctors declared him brought dead.

Eleven people were arrested on Monday in connection with the case.